U.S. knocked Russian troll operation offline on the day of the 2018 midterm election

Image: Sergei KonkovTASS via Getty Images

Russian trolls were awfully quiet during the 2018 Midterms. Now we know that’s thanks in part to a preemptive cyber attack by the United States Military.

According to by The Washington Post, U.S. Cyber Command launched its “first offensive cyber campaign against Russia” on the day of the 2018 midterm elections. The cyber attack, backed by intelligence from the National Security Agency, reportedly took the Kremlin-linked Russian troll farm, Internet Research Agency, offline for the day.

Officials say the purpose of the election day operation was to block any possible disinformation campaigns from Russia regarding the Midterm results.

“They basically took the IRA offline,” said a source familiar with the matter. “They shut ‘em down.”

The cyber attack was so debilitating to the Russian troll farms’ operation that employees apparently complained about the disruption to their superiors.

“Part of our objective is to throw a little curve ball, inject a little friction, sow confusion,” explained one official. “We showed what’s in the realm of the possible. It’s not the old way of doing business anymore.”

As part of this year’s National Defense Authorization Act, last year, U.S. Cyber Command has greater authority to carry out such operations, as long as the action doesn’t result in death, significant damage, or destruction.

A large, multi-agency effort was put into protecting the 2018 Midterm elections from foreign influence. U.S. Senators and pentagon officials declared the IRA election day takedown operation a success.

Another notable strategic move highlighted by the Post and first reported by the , involved a messaging campaign directed at the IRA as well as officials at the GRU, Russia’s intelligence agency. In the month before the 2018 election, the United States rolled out a campaign that involved emailing, DMing, and texting Russian trolls and hackers informing them of the U.S. government’s knowledge of their real names and online handles. The messages came with an explicit warning not to interfere with elections or other countries’ affairs.

Last year, special counsel Robert Mueller indicted dozens of Russian nationals with both the and for actions that interfered with the U.S. electoral process in 2016.

Russian trolls were suspiciously absent from social media services in the months leading up to last . Online platforms like Twitter had significantly its efforts to curb foreign disinformation campaigns and the dissemination of fake news.

The U.S. government as well as the tech companies now have a proven course of action to curtail disinformation online. However, the threat of foreign influence campaigns lingers on. While the preemptive strikes had an obvious effect on interference around the Midterms, the 2018 election lacked a high-profile presidential race, which galvanized malicious state actors in 2016. 

Did the U.S. really stop a full-fledged disinformation campaign or were the measures just effective against an operation that was just testing the waters for the next big election?

With the 2020 presidential race already underway, It seems like we’ll soon find out.